Automatic firearm.



UNITED sfrATEs PAE. IYFFIC rnaNxLrN, r. KNoUs', or Naw HAVEN,coirNEc'rIcU, assIGNon 'ro WINCHESTEB nnrna'rme Amas co., or NEW HAVEN,GQNNEQTIGUT, A conronacrxon.

nuroma'rlo RIRE To all whomI 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANKLIN F. KNoUs,

a citizen of the United States, residing at New Haven, in the county ofvNewv Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a newand usefulImprovement in Automatic Firearms; and I do herebyk declare thefollowing, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings andthe numerals of y; reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear,

and exact description of the same, and whlch said drawings constitutepart of this l 5 a View in side elevation of the volley-fire lever. Fig.6' a reverse broken plan view of the breech-bolt which has a balancingextension in the form of two forwardly eX- tending arms. Fig. 7 adetached View on an 3e enlarged scale of the yielding trigger stop. Myinvention relates to an improvement in that class of shoulder arms whichhave heretofore been commonly designated as automatic for the reasonthat they have been constructed so that the explosion of the cartridgevhas been utilized as the motive power for the extraction of the spentshell',

the introduction of another cartridge into' the cartridge chamber of thegun-barrel land 4o the cooking of the hammer preparatory to theexplosion of the cartridge so introduced. Automatic guns of the classabove referred to have been operated bythe gases of exv plosion 'as wellas; by the recoil of explosion. Strictly speaking these shoulder gunsare semi-automatic rather than automatic for the reason that the 'hammeris not automatically released for firing. Indeed much ingenuity has beenexpended in safe-guarding them against volley-firing by constructin, ;l

them so that the trigger must be 'consciously released bythe user aftereach shot.

The object of my present invention iato combine in a so called automaticshoulder arm the advantages of a single lire or semi- Specilcation ofLetters Patent. Application led February 33, 1

retorted sept. v, ieee, Snial Re. 47953913. l I

v'automatic gun with the advantages of an automatic or voHey--re gun.

With these ends in view my invention consists in a self-loading,self-ejecting and selfcooking shoulder gun having meansor conf vertingit from a single fire to a volley lire o My invention' further'consistsin certain details of construction and combinations of parts as will behereinafter described and 55 -pointed out in the claims. f

For the illustration of my invention, I

have' shown it as embodied in an automatic firearm constructedsubstantially in accordance with United States Patent No. 681,481 7.9granted August 2-7, 1901. I have however, shown only those parts of thegun of thatr patentluecessary for the disclosure of my presentinvention. y

In carrying out my invention as herein shown I employ va sliding orlongitudinally movable sear 2 having a longitudinally eX- tendedpivot-hole 3 through which the pivot 4 of the trigger 5 passes, the searandtrigger turning independently of each other upon 80 the pivot. `Atits forward end `the sear is formed with a cooking-nose 6 adapted to ienter a cooking-notch 7 formed in the heel of the hammer 8 which is notformed' with any half-cooking notch. The rear end ofthe sear gg,terminates in a `flattened finger 9 for coaction with a single-.tirenotch 1(1-and a volleyiire notch 11 formed in the upper rear corner ofthe trigger 5, the notch 11 being located A in front of and below thenotch 10.- The notches 10 andv 11 are separated by a horizontal liftingface 12 coactinv with the notch 11, while a corresponding time 13coacting with the notch 1t) is located back of and above the same. Backof these notches 10 95 and 11 the trigger is furnished with a groove 14for the reception of a wire trigger-spring 15 locatedin a spring-chamber16 formed in the lower tang 17 of the gun frame 18. At its forward endthe Sear 2 is furnished with an 10o offsetting lvoll'eyfire finger 19having its front face formed with a bevel 20 for coaction with abevel-21 at the rear end of a volley-fire lever 22 which rocks upon thehammer-pivot v2?. The forward end of the 105 said lever 22 is formedwith a cam-like projection 24 enterin a long groove 25 having its rearend curve to form a cam 26 coacting with the pro'ection24aforesaid. Thegroove 25. aforesai is formed in part in the balanced breech block 27and in part in the right h and forwardl extending arm 28 thereof. yThesaid vo ley-fire lever 22 and' groove 25` are constructed and arrangedso that the cam 26 coacts with the rear bevel of the projection 24 justas the breechblock 2.7 moves mto its closed or recoil-taklng posltion.

The trigger 5 has a socket 29 formed in*y it for the reception of ayielding trigger-stop 30 in the form of a plunger'resting upon a. spiralvolley-fire spring 31 located in lthe bottom of the socket 29 andexerting a constant eHort to pushthe stop out of the socket in which itis held by a retaining pin 32 entering a notch 33 in the top of thestop. The upper face of the rear end of the stop 30 engages at the point34 with the lower end of rear wall of a vertical recess or cut 35 formedin the tang 17 for the reception of the trigger 5. This engagement ofthe stop 30 with the rear wall ofthe recess 35 limits the swingingmovement of the trigger in the use of the gun as a single-fire gun, thespring 31 being made stiff enough to prevent the stop from yielding andmoving forward except when `the user of the arm consciously exerts uniusual force in pulling the trigger to the rearward when the spring 31will be compressed, allowing the sto 30 to move forward and the triggerbe li ted into its volley-lire posi.- tion. f A helical scar-spring 36located in .a bore 37 in the trigger 5 enters a shallow recess 38 in theSear and exerts a constant effort not only to move the sear bodilyforward within the limits of its elongated pivot-hole 3, but also tolift the cocking nose 6 of the scar as high 'as it will go into thecocking-notch 7. The said sear-spring 36 is lighter than thehammer-spring 39 which, as will appear later on, overcomes the tensionof the searspring 36 in moving the Sear bodily rearward. Having nowdetailed the construction of the particular form of my invention chosenfor illustration, I will proceed to set forth its operation. After thepulling of the trigger 5 has withdrawn the cooking-nose 6 from thecooking-notch 7, the Sear-spring 36 will immediately move the Sear 2bodily forward with the effect of carrying the finger 9 and at its rearend forward beyond the range of the horizontal lifting-seat 12 formingthe lower part of the single-fire notch 10, and therefore beyond theoperative range of the trigger. Now as the action of the un in recockmgis automatic, the pulling o the trigger and the explosion of thecartridge istalmost instantly followed by the re-c'ocking of the hammerwhich is effected by the entrance of the cooking nose 6 of lthe Searinto the cocking-notch 4"I by the agency of the searspring 36 whichexerts a constant effort to lift the nose of the sear as well as toslide the sear bodily forward. If. now, the rearward draft upon thetrigger'is not removed by the relaxation of the linger which pulled it,the sear will be moved bodily rearward by' the hammer-spring 39 actingthrough the forward wall of the cooking-notch '7, and the l forward edgeof the cooking-nose 6 and overcoming the tension of the scar-spring 36which is weaker than the hammer-spring In this way the Sear will bemoved rearward until its fin er 9 is abutted against the vertical wallof the single-re notch 10. During the rearward movement of the sear asdescribed the hammer .will swing forward slightly, but that isimmaterial. The gun cannot be fired with the parts in the positions justabove described inasmuch as the trigger 5 is not in operative relationto the Sear 2. To bring the two parts into operative relations, rearwarddraft upon the trigger must be removed so as to permit thetrigger-spring 15to act and swing the trigger downward so as to move itsface 13 below the finger 9 of the Sear which will 'then be moved bodilyrearward by the agency of the hammerspring 39. As the sear moves bodilyrearward the hammer will swin forward again through a short arc, butthis is immaterial;

The gun ma now be fired as a single-fire gun by pulling the trigger theface 13 of which is now in position to operate upon and lift the finger9 of the Sear, whereby the cooking-nose 6 thereof is withdrawn from thecooking-notch 7 of the hammer, so as to let the same fall. It will thusbe seen that the conscious release or letting up of rearward draft uponthe trigger must be interposed between each firing of the gun when thesame is used as' a single-fire gun.

' To convert the gun from a single-fire to a volley-fire gun, thetrigger is pulled upon with sufficient force to overcome the tension ofthe spring 31 permitting the yielding trigger-stop 30 to move forwardand the trigger to be lifted high enough to bring its volley-fire notch11 into coperation with .the finger 9 at the rear lend of the sear.

When this is done, (and it makes no difference whether it is done beforethe first car! tridge has been fired or after it or any other cartridgehas been fired), the vertical wall of the volley-hre notch 11 preventsthe sear from bein \moved bodily rearward as before described, by theovercoming of the tension of the Sear-spring 36 by the superior tensionof the hammer-spring 39. On this account the sear is held so far forwardthat just as the breech-block 27 .is moving into its recoil-takingposition, thefcam 26 of the groove 25 coacts with the beveled projection24 of the volley-fire lever 22 the bevel 21 at the rear end of whichcoacts with the bevel 20 of the volley-fire finger 19 of the sear essaimto accomplish the saine result b Ameans of the trigger and the f1 r 9Lat t e rear end of the sear.. Solon t erefore, as the trigger is heldin its vol ey-re osition, the vertical rear wall of its volleyre notch11 will holdv the sear 'forward into position for the coaction of itsvolley-re finger 19 with the volley-fire lever 22 which is operated bythe closing movement of the breech-block. At

any time, however, that the extra tension required for volle -fring isremoved from the trigger, the vo ey-fre spring 31 will assert itself tobring the trigger back into its single-re position whereby thevolley-lire notch 11 will be carried downward below coperativerangelwith the finger 9v of the sear which will then be permitted to beslid bodily rearward as before by. the hammery spring 39. In this waythe gun will be conve'rted from a volley-fire to a single-tire gun. Itwill be seen that all that it is necessary to do to convert the gun froma single-fire to a volley-lire gun, and vice versa, is to vary theamount of rearward draft upon the trigger. Furthermore the meansrequired for these conversions are extremely simple and reliable.

I claim 1. In a gun convertible from single to volley ring, and viceversa, the combination with a trigger normally taking a single fireposition, moving under'extra pressure from its s' le fir' to its vollefiring position, of a ongitliilginally mova le sear Acoactingwithsingle-fire and volley-fire notches in the trigger, a volley-firelever co acting with Vthe sear for operating the same4 automaticallywhen the trlgger is in its volley-fire position and the said lever beingconstructed to be automatically operated by one of the moving parts ofthe gun.

v2. In an automatic shoulder arm nvertiblefrom a single to a volley-lirearm and vice versa, the combination with a' trigger, of a yielding stop'therefor, a longitudinally movable scar coac with t e trigger whichrevents the b y rearward movment o thesear when the trigger is in itsvolley-firing position, a: volley-fire lever coact-ing with the forwardend of the scar, and a breech-block coact'ing with the volleyfire leverto operate the same just as the breech-block moves into itsrecoil-taking position.

. 3. In a gun convertible 'from single. to

volley-firing and vice versa, the combination with a trigger, of ayielding stop normally holding the triggerl in position for single ringbut yielding to permit it to be `moved into position for volleyliring,the said stop being mounted directly in the said trigger and projectingrearwardly thererom.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification in the presenceof two subscribing witnesses.

FRANMJN- F. SKNoUs.

Witnesses: V

FRANK A. PAUL, DANIEL H. VEADER.

